Surely,
the Sheriff of Nottingham lived in a castle, a
proper castle with a moat, battlements and turrets - to look out for bands of
outlaws roaming the murky underworld of Sherwood
Forest? So when visitors
come to Nottingham
and have their photo taken with the 7ft, half ton bronze effigy of Robin Hood,
they could be forgiven for thinking: ‘wot, no castle!?’
Because
despite passing through an impressive medieval gatehouse, once inside the
castle grounds the visitor is not confronted by imposing medieval fortifications;
instead they are welcomed by a genteel Edwardian
pleasure garden; complete with bandstand, finely manicured flowerbeds and
granite war memorials.
To
confuse matters further, there is a dense plantation of trees obscuring views
to the castle itself, and when visitors climb the steep banks to reach the
entrance, they may think they’ve stumbled uninvited upon the front door of a
local Aristocrat.
And that’s precisely what the current building once was; a Ducal Palace, built
in 1679 for the Duke
of Newcastle.
Overlooking
the centre of Nottingham,
on a near-vertical 130 foot-high escarpment of sandstone, the Ducal Palace sits
on the site of one of the finest medieval castles in the whole of England - to
rival those of Dover,
Warwick or Bamburgh. However, in the 1640s, as a
deadly focal point of the English
Civil War, the castle suffered severe damage and was completely demolished in 1649 by Oliver
Cromwell and his
victorious Parliamentarians.
Upon
the restoration of the Monarchy, the First Duke of Newcastle purchased the site
of the former castle from the Duke of Rutland. The Duke had earned the title through his loyalty shown to the King, fighting bravely for the royalists during the
Civil War. In 1674, Henry Cavendish, the Second Duke, commissioned Samuel
Marsh, a mason from Lincoln, to design and build a no-expense-spared mansion, of
which the facades still remain today - a rare remaining example of a particular
style of renaissance architecture known as ‘mannerism’.
The
defining characteristic of mannerism is unpretentious style, yet with precise, ornate
Roman detailing - Samuel Marsh actually based the design of Nottingham Castle
on a set of architectural engravings by Rubens, a Dutchman who toured Italy in
the 1670s to illustrate some of its finest buildings. Rubens’ book ‘Palazzi de Genova’ had a great influence on design in Northern
Europe; the work focused on the great
renaissance buildings of Genoa and the following engraving of the ‘Palazzo della Rovere’ looks remarkably
similar to Nottingham’s very own Ducal Palace:
After
its completion in 1679, for the next hundred years or so Nottingham Castle was
an aristocratic party house, a luxurious Italianate mansion built for
entertainment and nocturnal revelry, capable of hosting grand banquets and the crème
de la crème of English society. The Duke of Newcastle was prime minister twice
between 1754 and 1762, and Princess Anne, one day to become Queen Anne as the
last ruler from the House of Stuart, took residence at the Ducal Palace while
in hiding during a monarchical crisis.
The
first floor contained the state rooms, with a double height saloon and state
chamber, along with a private family parlour and dining room. Each room was
richly decorated with ornate plasterwork and panels bearing pictures, tapestries
and hangings. The sedate atmosphere of the gallery rooms today betrays the
building’s former life as Nottingham’s most exclusive nightclub; early evening soirees
and light teas followed by lavish night time balls; women resplendent in silk
stockings, heavily brocaded dresses and extravagant powdered wigs, the men in tight
breeches and dark coats over brilliant white linen, sewn with jewels to sparkle
under the crystal chandeliers.
Neither Russian oligarch nor Arab Sheikh stands up to the Georgian
nobility on decadence – for all the grandeur of
the Ducal Palace at Nottingham, it was only ever intended for occasional use– the
Newcastle family owned huge swathes of London prime real estate, they had
estates all over the country and used Clumber House in Sherwood Forest as their
primary residence, sadly no longer standing after it was ravaged by a series of
fires and eventually demolished in 1938.
The
Dukes of Newcastle were no strangers to disastrous conflagrations; Nottingham
Castle itself famously burnt down in 1831 – an episode in the castle’s history
with its own story - after protesters reacted following the Fourth Duke of
Newcastle’s decision to contest a parliamentary reform bill in support of the
lower classes.
The
interiors of the Ducal Palace were entirely destroyed, only the external walls
of the building survived, to be carefully restored by local architect T.C Hine
in the 1870s; the whole structure was completely remodeled to become the first
municipal art gallery outside of London (another fascinating chapter in the
castle’s history).
By
the time of the fire in 1831 the Ducal Palace’s golden age as a lavish party
house was over; the building had been in decline for some time and had been
divided into separate tenancies by 1795, with a part of the building in use as
a boarding school. By 1800, some of the grounds had been rented to locals who
had built various summerhouses and grottos in them – a far cry from their
medieval origins. A sale of the entire site was even contemplated in 1805 with
a view to conversion into individual apartments until the raging mob sent the
elegant renaissance building up in flames.
The
next time you see a visitor to Nottingham looking up after they’ve taken a
selfie with Robin Hood to exclaim: ‘wot, no castle?’, you can point out the
building’s tumultuous history as one of the most significant Ducal Mansions of
Georgian England and primary residences of the Dukes of Newcastle – one of whom
acted as Prime Minister and said: ‘I
shall not think the demands of the people a rule of conduct, nor shall I ever
fear to incur their resentment in the prosecution of their interest.’
Considering Nottingham Castle burnt down less than a century after he said
this, when his son had incurred the resentment of the people, these may be
considered famous last words.
